But a better model almost always comes with a better dollar-per-task-accomplishe...

oblio · 2026-09-08T07:36:58

I would rather LLM cost curves go down 10x and then we really do something.

We need a lot more hardware for universal LLMs (probably 10x, if not more), and we need it to be cheaper.

If anything, I would fund a DRAM maker in Europe.

nickpp · 2026-09-08T08:06:51

> I would fund a DRAM maker in Europe.

I wouldn't. I can think of at least 10 regulations (labor and environmental chef amongst them) that would render such a maker uncompetitive from the start. Chinese makers would eat its lunch.

oblio · 2026-09-08T08:57:25

We used to have some. Also, regarding labor, that part boggles the mind. Aren't those factories supposed to be highly automated?

Also, at this point DRAM availability is becoming a security risk.

ezst · 2026-09-08T09:12:51

Doesn't matter, we need to opt out of the rat race that consists of making the planet worse for the next generations in exchange of quick bucks for the oligarchs.

The way is to factor externalities in the final price, reward sustainable behaviour and set better standards. And that's what's going on: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/how-europes-new-...

The same applies to labour conditions and quality standards. And don't bring up arguments like "it can't work" or "that hurt competitiveness": all workers around the world want the exact same thing, a livable planet for their children. The only ones to object are the global elite who one ends up defending when they make the current status quo sound inevitable.

nickpp · 2026-09-08T12:22:09

> all workers around the world want the exact same thing, a livable planet for their children

Actually, they don't. First of all they want livable conditions for themselves. Ecologism is a hobby for people with full bellies.

I remember during communism which failed to even feed and clothe us - but The Party kept telling us that we were actually winning and we were so morally superior to those "corrupt capitalists". This is what happens when ideological justifications replace rational thought.

oblio · 2026-09-08T14:05:18

> Ecologism is a hobby for people with full bellies.

Almost the entire planet where this debate is raging, is the part of the planet where people have full bellies. On average, too full, even.

Ecologism is also a hobby for people that don't want their kids to starve, as people living in Mesopotamia around the time of Akkad, or people around the Sea of Aral starting in the 1980s have discovered.

nickpp · 2026-09-09T06:39:06

> Almost the entire planet where this debate is raging, is the part of the planet where people have full bellies.

Exactly. And most of the pollution happens in the other part.

We’re crippling our economies and render our companies uncompetitive to merely export environmental effects around, while pushing our voter base to the extremes.

All for naught too, because when the orc armies come (attracted by our weakness to even defend ourselves) they will do the the environment what they did in Ukraine…

oblio · 2026-09-09T10:59:03

> And most of the pollution happens in the other part.

Where does it happen exactly?

> All for naught too, because when the orc armies come (attracted by our weakness to even defend ourselves) they will do the the environment what they did in Ukraine…

Who are the orcs here? Russia? Europe is rearming like it's the 1980s.

ezst · 2026-09-08T13:34:03

> Ecologism is a hobby for people with full bellies.

Then it's a good thing that Chinese bellies are satisfied, we can get to those existential problems, now.